Trial
Ewan’s certainty that Shona would be spared the humiliation of the proceedings blew away like chaff on the wind when she stormed into the hall, clutching a large book. He might have known she wouldn’t remain in the safety of her chamber.
Without his prompting, Fynn and David moved to clear a path for her.
“There was no marriage,” she shouted breathlessly.
Ewan burned to jump off the dais and take her into his arms, but Kendric was presiding over this court, not him. It would be foolish to jeopardize the outcome in any way.
Shona glared at her accuser with undisguised loathing. For the briefest of moments, Ewan wondered if she hated Morley because he’d raped her. He quickly doused the flame of suspicion. He had to trust she’d told him the truth.
“If I was The Camron,” Mungo whined, looking too smug, “I’d enforce the clan rule that women are nay permitted to speak at a court.”
Shona narrowed her eyes and scanned the crowd as a murmur of agreement with Mungo’s assertion rippled on the air. “So, it seems a MacCarron lass is nay allowed to defend herself against calumny.” She nodded to Fynn and David. “And apparently I must rely on Mackinloch kin to defend me from my own clan.”
Kendric cleared his throat. “I’m sorry to say that Morley has the right of it, lass. Ye canna speak.”
Ewan hoped she would turn her head to look at him and be assured he would speak for her.
*
Shona had never seen a volcano, but her father had told her about the discovery of the ruins of Pompeii when he was a boy. She seethed now with molten anger against all males and their stupid rules. Surely her clansmen wouldn’t believe Mungo simply because he was a man, but even as the thought occurred she acknowledged the reality of the way things were.
She sought Ewan’s gaze. Perhaps he could intercede. His clenched jaw and tightly folded arms told of his fury, but his eyes spoke of calmness and trust. He would speak for her.
She held up the book briefly, then gave it to Fynn. “A clue,” she whispered.
He carried the codex to Ewan who nodded to her as he accepted it. She willed him to open it, to find the passage, but he put the tome down on the head table.
“Speak yer piece,” Kendric told Mungo.
She noted with some satisfaction that Morley was staring at the codex and didn’t look quite so smug.
“Me and Shona got wed,” he declared.
She snorted.
Walter pushed his way to the front. “He bribed a simpleton squatting in the old Dunscar Abbey cell.”
“I’ll call for witnesses shortly, Walter,” Kendric said wearily, scratching inside the top of his cast. “Carry on, Morley.”
“Then I took her to Inverlochy and we did the deed.”
Shona fisted her hands, heedless of the fingernails digging into her palms.
“Mungo wasn’t at Inverlochy when we rescued Shona,” Walter shouted. “He left her with two guards. One of them is in the infirmary now suffering with dog bites. Ask him.”
Mungo shifted his weight. Sweat broke out on his forehead. “The witnesses aren’t supposed to speak yet,” he protested.
Kendric glowered. “How could ye have done the deed, as ye so indelicately put it, if ye left her wi’ guards?”
Mungo scratched his head. “I was mistaken. We did it before.”
“Before what?”
Shona snorted back her amusement. The idiot had just talked himself into admitting he might be a rapist. He was tying himself in knots with his lies.
“In the cave at Congers Rock,” he muttered.
Shona met Ewan’s gaze as he stepped forward. “If Morley has finished his testimony, my laird, may I speak?” he asked Kendric.
Admiration blossomed in her heart. Ewan’s calm voice gave away nothing of his inner turmoil.
Kendric nodded.
Every face turned to listen to the next tantalizing revelation.
“My betrothed told me of her imprisonment in the cave.”
“She’s nay yer betrothed,” Mungo insisted.
Kendric huffed. “Quiet. Ye’ve had yer say.”
“She was understandably afraid, but Mungo told her, I’m nay likely to have my way with ye in a cave wi’ my men looking on.”
His mimicry of Morley’s ridiculous voice was so astoundingly perfect, she had to bite on her knuckle, but some didn’t hide their amusement.
Mungo hunched his shoulders and glared at Ewan.
“He did put an arm across her hips but explained it was Just in case ye get a silly notion to run off.”
Many laughed out loud, enjoying the impersonation. Shona felt more hopeful. She reminded herself Morley didn’t command much respect among the majority of MacCarrons anyway. Her betrothed had realized it and was capitalizing on the knowledge.
Ewan’s voice deepened. “I told Shona that the mon must be a eunuch if he slept alongside her all night and didna have his way wi’ her.”
It was a confession of a very personal and private nature, but it seemed to endear Ewan to the onlookers and they guffawed at Mungo’s expense.
“Always suspected there was summat wrong wi’ Morley,” someone shouted, eliciting more crude remarks about Mungo’s sexual prowess.
The giant’s ruddy complexion turned an alarming shade of crimson.
“We’ll see smoke come out of his ears soon,” Moira whispered beside Shona.
Ewan placed a casual hand on the codex. “Mayhap we should ask Ailig what transpired,” he shouted over the din.
“Aye,” Mungo replied. “Er…nay…I mean.”
A hush fell over the crowd, though a few whispered of Ailig’s banishment.
“Which is it, mon?” Ewan asked. “Do ye deny ye’ve aided yer brother in his nefarious schemes?”
“Nay…aye…I’ve aided him wi’ food and shelter, but…”
“He’s an outlaw.”
“Aye…nay…his banishment was unjust.”
“And ye hated Laird Beathan for it.”
“Aye…nay…we…”
“He’s likely to make himself dizzy wi’ all the nodding and shaking of his head,” Moira muttered.
“So ye murdered him,” Ewan thundered.
“Nay…I’m nay a murderer…’twas Ailig.”
Ewan narrowed his eyes. “He pushed the laird off the tower.”
Mungo studied his feet. “Aye.”
“And caused Kendric’s horse to bolt.”
“Aye.”
Kendric struggled to stand, brandishing his crutch. “Ye fyking miscreant. Wait till I get my hands on ye…”
Peacefulness crept into Shona’s heart, despite the ruckus that exploded around her. She’d never accepted the notion her father had taken his own life. He’d been vindicated, the murderer exposed. A plot to overthrow the hereditary lairds of Clan MacCarron had been thwarted. But where was Ailig and what had he done with Jeannie?
*
Ewan wasn’t finished. There could be no question left in anyone’s mind about Shona’s innocence in all this. He pointed an accusing finger at Mungo Morley. “Before us stands a criminal, a liar, a murderer’s accomplice. Can we believe his accusations against our Shona?”
“Nay,” everyone shouted.
He looked into the tear-filled eyes of his betrothed. “I swear before all o’ ye, I look forward to the day I wed Shona MacCarron, for she is the purest and loveliest lass I’ve ever met.”
“Aye,” came the resounding response.
He turned back to Mungo. “Now what have ye done wi’ Lady Jeannie?”
“I’ll nay betray my own brother,” he whimpered.
Ewan pointed to Fynn, simmering nearby. “Tell us or I’ll nay intervene while my kinsman here persuades ye. He’s a mite worried about her.”
“Wait,” Shona cried, hurrying to the dais. “The codex. I’m sure the thirteenth laird has given us a clue, but I dinna ken what to make of it.”
She leafed hurriedly through a few pages, blowing away puffs of dust, then pointed to a drawing. “Here.”
Ewan read and re-read the bold script, understanding some but not all of the cryptic message.
“What does it say?” Kendric asked.
“It talks about the need to build a place to hide…from the Mackinlochs.”
Folk groaned.
“From the English king too,” Shona added.
Muttered opinions were exchanged as to which English king it referred to since every last one was considered a thorn in the side of all Scots.
Ewan was none the wiser. “Aye, but he talks about a stench. I dinna…”
He looked up and noticed Mungo’s red face had turned ashen.
Suddenly, everything fell into place. The stink that clung to the wretch, the grating at the foot of the staircase and another on the roof. “The cesspit,” he declared.
“What?” Walter asked, scratching his head.
“We get to the hidden chamber by way of the cesspit.”